Qatar May Be Buying Its Way into the PA to Isolate Iran

Qatar’s emir, after having brought a check to Gaza, plans to bail out Abbas next week. His strategy may be to isolate Iran from Hamas.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 12/25/2012, 2:52 PM

Abbas speaks next to Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister

Reuters

Qatar’s emir, after having brought a $250 million check to Hamas in Gaza, plans to bail out Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas next week, possibly as part of a strategy to separate Iran from Hamas.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad Ibn Khalifa al-Thani said he will make good on his pledge to bail out the PA, according to the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency. Israel has announced that instead of turning over tax revenues it collects monthly for the PA to Ramallah, it will use the funds to pay off the Palestinian Authority’s massive debt to the Israel Electric Corp. for electricity supplied.

Behind the emir’s sudden interest in the PA could be Iran, which has an “evil axis” that runs from Syria, through Lebanon and Hizbullah and to Hamas in Gaza and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Arutz Sheva reported last week that de facto Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has told Hamas terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria to prepare for a new Intifada – this time against none other than Abbas, who heads the arch-rival Fatah movement.

The same report was cited as being one of the reasons Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pulled off his gloves, speaking forcefully concerning Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem and the intentions to build more than 3,000 new homes for Jews in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

“The aim of the Qatari leader’s visit is part of a larger Qatari policy to reorient Iranian alliances in the Middle East and to win over Hamas to the side of the pro-Western countries like Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia,” wrote Geopolitical Monitor.

By giving Hamas recognition through the emir’s visit, Qatar offers the terrorist organization an alternative to Iran for financial aid. If Qatar can pull off the trick of buying into Hamas and Fatah and placing them under its wing, the sound of money may quiet them down.

Without Hamas, Iran will have less capability of engineering a two-front proxy war against Israel through Lebanon and Gaza.

Qatar, like the five other Gulf States, has another objective – neutralizing Iran’s threat to manufacture a nuclear bomb as part of its announced strategy to establish a pan-Arab Islamic empire in the Middle East.

Qatar is a close ally with the United States, and by propping up Hamas, it gives the terrorist organization recognition it never enjoyed before, but also may draw Hamas away from the Axis of Evil.